South Africa: Water Levels Below 50% As Drought Rips Through Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape dam levels are below 50%, with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality and the Sarah Baartman district the worst affected by the drought.
For more than 10 years some parts of the Eastern Cape have faced a series of multi-year droughts which have dropped dam levels to below 50%, made worse by climate change and the long term effects of El Niño.
The drought has badly affected a number of small towns and villages in the province, and some communities have resorted to buying water or drinking with animals at rivers.
The province had some rainfall in the past weeks that contributed to a slight improvement on the dam levels and the combined average of dam levels increased from 48.4% last week to 49.1% this week.
Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said, “The Algoa Water Supply System (ALWSS) with major dams supplying Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) is sitting below 20% at an average of 11.7% this week compared to 11.8% last week.
“There is an improvement in other dams under AWSS but the Kouga Dam remains low at 6.7%, Loerie Dam has increased from 33.2% last week to 35.7% this week and Haarlem Dam also.
By Daily Maverick.
